Proving a Texas Personal Injury Case in Three Steps

Accidents and injuries happen all the time in San Antonio, but if you are injured in an accident that is someone else’s fault, you might be able to file a personal injury case and recover damages from that person. When you start this lawsuit, you will have to prove that the defendant was at fault and that the accident was caused by “negligence” on their part. You’ll also need a lawyer, so search online for “best personal injury attorney near me.”

Negligence, in the legal sense, is defined as, “A failure to behave with the level of care that someone of ordinary prudence would have exercised under the same circumstances.” The court will view someone as innocent until you and your San Antonio accident attorney can prove negligence. This concept, known as the “burden of proof”, will always lie in the injured party’s hands.

Below, we will lay out the best way to go about proving a Texas personal injury case in three steps. If you are injured and need to prove your case, you will need a great personal injury attorney San Antonio. At Carabin Shaw, we’ve been helping people like you win their personal injury cases for over 25 years. We are on your side.

To prove a Texas personal injury case, you (the plaintiff) must prove that the defendant was liable for the accident that caused the injury. This can be proven in the following three ways:

1. Proving a duty of care - Duty of care is the legal term for the obligation to reasonably avoid injuring somebody else or intentionally placing them in a dangerous situation. This seems like a simple concept, but it can become a gray area quite quickly. The law states that “reasonable” steps must be taken to avoid accidents, but there is no concrete manual on what this means. Shopping malls and stores in San Antonio must check the floor for spills and make sure there aren’t obstructions in walking paths, but how often are they expected to check for spills? How many minutes or hours between checks is reasonable? As you can see, this is where the gray area exists and where most legal battles begin. A San Antonio accident attorney will be able to help you prove a duty of care in your case.
2. Proving the duty of care was breached - Proving a breach of duty of care involves proving that a person created, or allowed, a dangerous situation to come about which caused an accident. An example could be a grocery store that is warned of a spill in one of their aisles but decides not to clean it up, even though they are aware of the situation and a shopper falls and is injured. They would have breached their duty of care by acting negligently and avoiding their duty of care to their shoppers. Call an attorney if you’ve been in an accident like this.
3. Proving you were injured and the breach of duty of care was the cause - The final thing you have to prove is that you sustained injuries in your accident and that someone else’s breach of duty of care was the cause of the accident. Your lawyer must be able to prove that the breach of duty of care was the main cause of the accident in question and there were no other outside factors that may have caused the accident.

If you’ve been injured in an accident, contact a personal injury attorney San Antonio right away. To find one, you can start by asking your friends, “who is the best personal injury attorney near me?” They may mention us, Carabin Shaw. We’ve recovered over $500 million for our clients and can help you today. To speak to an attorney, call us at 210-222-2288 for a free consultation.